FanPost

Personal Story & Questions about sympathies to other teams

Hello together! I have some questions, but first, I wanted to say hi, since I plan on staying here for a longer time and while I think a few guys of you might have seen my name a couple of times, there are no real personal messages, profiles and stuff here, so i wanted to hide some personal introduction here first before the question I wanted to ask.

Some few of you may know that a) I am from Germany, b) football is just a thing here for a few years and c) I only am into football since 2015!

I think I learned sooo much in that time and it is one of my most discussed topics in my real life, especially with my younger brother with that I share a gamepass with for the first time this year! It brought us two actually closer together again after our contact dwindled before. Then he showed me American Football and the first game I saw was the first Bengals - Steelers match in 2015 on the german TV. I kinda decided to root for the Steelers after the first half, because the Bungles jerseys were (and are) ugly and I love experienced and old team leaders with funny names. I still think our logo is one of the ugliest in the league, so almost drew me off, when I started watching. But hey, I ended up rooting for the Steelers and that's what counts. It was fun, but not the world. (Btw, my brother is a dedicated Seahawks fan)

About 2 months later my brother invited me again to watch an NFL game. Funnily enough my second game I ever wacthed was AGAIN Steelers - Bengals. "Ok, now that's some personal feud here then." I was interested, why they played each other in such a short timespan for a second time, which i found odd, because european sports leagues operate very differently. Then I kinda got stuck into searching about football related stuff and slowly got into the games and rules. I could now understand what was going on. Well besides all these penalties and stuff. But I knew what touchdowns, field goals, "1&10", Tight Ends and such stuff was. I could follow.

Then the most amazing match for me ever happened: the Wildcard Steelers - Bengals game! I probably had seen about 10 games until that point and this was already the 3rd time the Steelers faced the Bengals. I knew the prestory so I was really pumped up. I was watching this game at my grandparents in the middle of the night (it ended around 6 AM here!!!) I stayed up the whole night, even when I knew I need to get up to the haircutter (I don't know the english word for that) at 9 AM.

I really needed to scream into pillows, because the match was so intense, and I would have ran around through the appartment screaming OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG all the time. But since everyone was asleep, I could just "whisperscream" - my head was almost exploding because of that tension. I haven't felt alive like that very often in my lifespan.

After that it was pretty clear: I was into the Steelers! F*** the 15 teams that I've never seen to that date. 3 games against the Bengals were enough to make me a fan. With every small bit I leanred about the Steelers I liked the team more. They loyalty, the constancy and the mindset of the team and fans alike... It was a match made in heaven.

Oh boy, it was so much to learn! Punts, Kicks, penalties, IR, PUP rosters, rules rules rules rules. I really love complicated or complex things and I immediately fell in love with all the deep strategy things that football contains. In germany we call it "Rasenschach" sometimes which basically means "chess on grass" - I was never really that invested in a sport before - even though I was interested in sports, I never really was a true fan of something. This time it was different.

Soon I looked up for fansites and to this day I am in/on several groups, communities or websites about the Steelers to not miss any news or dscussions about my team. BTSC quickly became my main option, as I just found the quality of the articles higher and content more specific also with the ability to comment! It has been a fixpoint of my daily Internet visits. (Together with stuff about Eve Online, which I really love, too!)

Here I am now! I have refined my english skills enough so I can actually make some puns and understand the most words as long as they aren't sth special like "moonlighting" - and I think my English is really not too shabby. I feel like a part of BTSC now with all you familiar faces I see and discuss with on an almost daily basis.

I hope this was kinda interesting enough to read through it. xD It's not a flashy story. But since people outside of the football community in Germany usually don't really understand why a girl like me loves that sport, I wanted to share it with you guys.

By the way: My favorite players are often the "unsung heroes" that play above average while not getting the attention they'd arguably deserve. That's why I'm always rooting a little bit more for players like Ramon Foster, Mike Mitchell, Marcus Gilbert, Chris Boswell, Jordan Berry, Greg Warren or Stephon Tuitt. I still have no favorite single player, but I think there should be plenty of years left to finally chose one! So watch out for me as I will always cheer for the Fitzgerald Toussaints and the Jordan Dangerfields of this league and team!

Obviously there is only one team I love, and that is the Steelers, but i wanted to share my "sympathy tiers" with you guys:

Teams I personally like:
Cardinals, Bills, Browns, Titans, Lions

Teams I am neutral to or don't care about:
Dolphins, Ravens, Texans, Jaguars, Colts, Chargers, Raiders, Eagles, Bears, Vikings, Falcons, Saints, Buccaneers, Rams, Seahawks

Teams I personally dislike:
Jets, Panthers, Broncos, Chiefs, Cowboys, Giants, Redskins, 49ers

Teams I absolutely hate with a passion:
Patriots, Packers, Bengals

Little "not so fun fact"...: I watched a total of 4 games of Aaron Rodgers in my whole life. In 2 of them he threw a hail mary. That's a quota of 50%! In another one he makes this last minute throw against the Cowboys. Every time I am ready to exult because the other team (which I always like more, I hate Patriots and Packers), this brat throws a f'in Hail Mary or something close to that! I can't have it anymore. I cheered for Arizona (they luckily won in overtime), the Lions and even the Cowboys that I usually dislike and only the Falcons finally relieved me from my curse. I really hate Green Bay and think it's one of the most overrated teams in the league. They have been the worse team in every match I have ever seen from them, even if it were only 4 of them. I stopped watching GB games now so Arod stops throwing Hail Marys to my eyes.


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So now I come to my second part, which is just a question basically. Since I am not very long into the sports my sympathies really mostly depend on what happened in the last 2-3 years. I know some stuff about the more historical part of the NFL, so ofc I know players like Mean Joe Greene, but I can only refer to stuff that happened when I paid attention. I need your help now:

I would really love to read some opinions about other teams from you! I found the hate-battle with players and officials/coaches this offseason pretty entertaining and would vote to bring it back for a TEAM edition!

Which teams do you like/dislike? Which teams do Steelers fans generally like/dislike? I especially want to know thing about teams outside of the AFC North, which is quite obvious. What are your "sympathy tiers"?

Thanks for reading and please post many and long answers, I will read and consume them all! Heck, maybe let us know each other better! We spend so much time with each other, discussing and replying to comments, more than with some friends in real life maybe, that I think we should really begin to know each other a little bit better.

You heard my story up there, so I will leave just a few bits of information at the end: my name is Josephine, I am from Berlin in Germany and am in the twenties of my life. :D Nice to meet you!

♥ Greetings and love from Berlin to the world and mostly to the US I guess. ;D ♥

The opinions shared here are not those of the editorial staff of Behind the Steel Curtain or SB Nation. These posts are not approved in any way by the editorial staff of this web site.